Collections#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Just Beyond the Firelight |
1988 |
Buy |
| The Ballads of Madison County |
1993 |
Buy |
Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| One Good Road is Enough |
1990 |
Buy |
| Iowa |
1991 |
Buy |
| Old Songs in a New Cafe |
1994 |
Buy |
| The Summer Nights Never End…Until They Do |
2012 |
Buy |
Standalone Novels#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Bridges of Madison County |
1992 |
Buy |
| Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend |
1993 |
Buy |
| Border Music |
1995 |
Buy |
| Puerto Vallarta Squeeze |
1995 |
Buy |
| A Thousand Country Roads |
2002 |
Buy |
| High Plains Tango |
2005 |
Buy |
| The Long Night of Winchell Dear |
2006 |
Buy |
Robert James Waller (1939-2017) was an American author and former economics professor at the University of Northern Iowa. He is best known for The Bridges of Madison County, a slim romance novel published in 1992 that became one of the bestselling books of the 1990s. The story of a four-day love affair between photographer Robert Kincaid and Iowa farm wife Francesca Johnson struck a nerve with millions of readers.
Before writing fiction, Waller was an academic who published essays about rural life, economics, and the changing American landscape. His non-fiction collections like Just Beyond the Firelight and Old Songs in a New Cafe reflect his lyrical, reflective writing style. After the massive success of Bridges, he published several more novels, though none matched its commercial impact. He wrote A Thousand Country Roads (2002) as a sequel, returning to the Kincaid and Johnson story a decade later.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books has Robert James Waller written?
Robert James Waller has written 13 books across 3 series.
What was Robert James Waller's first book?
Robert James Waller’s first book is Just Beyond the Firelight, published in 1988.
What is Robert James Waller best known for?
Waller is best known for The Bridges of Madison County (1992), a short novel about a brief love affair between an Iowa housewife and a traveling photographer. It spent three years on the New York Times bestseller list and was adapted into a 1995 film starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep.